Database Searching Finding Needles in Haystacks Robert Williams Nov 30, 2007 Updated Dec 1,

Picking the Right Database What type of documents or resources are indexed? Disciplines: Education, Psych, Medical Journal List Format types: Journal Articles, Reports, Conferences, books, Dissertations. Scope: International? Which Languages? Current or retrospective?

Databases Database Comparison ERICPsych InfoPubMed TypeBib + Full- Text Bibliographic DisciplinesEducationPsychologyBioMedical Coverage Citations1.2 Million2.4 Million19 Million Journals6002, Other Materials All Pub Types Books & DissNone

Database Comparison Part 2 ERICPsych InfoPubMed ThesaurusERICTPITMesh AccessWeb – MUMUWeb Web LinksPublisher Sites Save Searches My EricMy EbscoHost My NCBI

PubMed/Medline from NLM (National Library of Medicine) Introduction to Searching Robert Williams

What is PubMed? Bibliographic with Abstracts and Links to Full Text Comprehensive - Covers all Bio-Medical and Clinical topics  5,608 Journals Indexed  19 Million Citations International – Indexes journals in 37 Languages Very Current – Updated Daily Tuesdays through Saturdays Goes way back – 1948 to Present Open to All – Free from NLM

What’s the difference between PubMed and Medline? Medline is a database which is searched by using many different public and commercial search engines. PubMed contains all of Medline, plus recently added entries that are in process to add MESH descriptors. Also contains non-biomedical citations from General Science Journals, Consumer Health Articles PubMed is both a database and a Web-based search engine.

National Library of Medicine Biomedical Indexing Timeline st volume of Index Medicus Published Medlars Automated database used to produce Index Medicus Batch searching by specially trained Librarians Medlars Online or Medline accessible Grateful Med searched by Health care Professionals PubMed on the Web 1998 – MedlinePlus offers consumer info Clinical Trials made Web searchable

What is MESH (Medical Subject Headings)? A thesaurus that facilitates precise retrieval of relevant citations from the Medline and PubMed Databases Automatic truncation (Fragments) Trained specialists apply unlimited headings to citations. Headings can be weighted according relevancy. Trees, Scope Notes, Valid Sub Headings

PubMed Vs. Google Pub MedGoogle Biomedical Haystacks onlyAll Haystacks Terms assigned by Human IndexersMachine created Controlled VocabularyCluster Analysis Mostly GrainMostly Chaff

Subject Searching PubMed Use any term, Automatic Mapping Qualifiers Limit by Fields TI, MH, AB in [ brackets] Subheadings /th /ci /ae /ep /sn /px /mo /bs Explosion is automatic unless you turn it off.

TOO Much Qualifiers Fields TI, MH, in [brackets] Major Heading [mj] Subheadings Limits Language Years Human Review

Advanced Search - History Go Here if you are lost Use # to refer to statement numbers Combine statements using AND OR NOT Operators Use & for AND | for OR Display Statement Results Preview runs faster than Search

Verification Searching Starting with a “Known” citation Assume Errors Use Single Citation Search Any field can be searched Vol., Issue Number, Pages Important title words with Author Use Author’s Last name and one initial

Displaying Results Number of Citations per page (20 default, 200 Max) Format Summary (Regular and Text) Abstract (Regular and Text) Medline XML PMID List Sort Pub Date or Most Recent Added Author (First of Last) Journal Title Title of Article Send to Collections File Clipboard

Store citations up to 8 hours Deletes duplicates Use #0 to run clipboard contents against other statements

My NCBI  Can save search strategies to run at any time or schedule automatic execution.  Must be a single statement  Details is an easy way to update a saved search.  Collections providesstorage of Citations

Tips Use Mesh if you find a term that matches your topic Most recent days) citations don’t have Mesh terms yet. Use multiple statements. Large complex statements usually have typos It’s easy to apply limits at the end of a search, but difficult to adjust a search when limits are on top. Use NOT operator with care [Bracketed] citation titles indicate articles are written in a foreign language.

Obtaining Documents Check link provided by PubMed. Access may not always be granted Log In using URL from HSL Home Page olding=wvmuhslib Check MU Periodicals Request InterLibrary Loan 1-2 day Turn around – Patient Care 2 hours IDS offers online request. Electronic delivery is often possible in PDF format. Denise Smith